Turkey Advice Please!

[MadamPoofyBrow]

I just got my first turkey. I got him from a 'Royal Palm Breeder' When I went, I found him and at least eight other turkeys living in a five by ten dog lot in three inches of med, with no waterer in sight and a bowl of ??? for food. They were nasty.
I picked out the biggest 'Royal Palm' Jake, even though I knew that he was NOT a royal palm. He's actually a penciled palm, which I think is awesome, and is fine by me. But still, why did they call them royals???
Anyway, so we brought him home, cleaned him up best we could, and got him set up in his new, clean coop. He is going to free range once he's tame, and I've had him four days and he is already very sweet, comes up to me, and loves to sit in my lap.
He is currently eating turkey chow. He tasted a grape, but didn't seem to like it. He also likes chicken food. So, my question is, what are some foods I could feed him that would be healthy and good for him? He is very young and only about a third grown. He is gobbling a little, and I caught him strutting for the first time today.
I don't want to feed him the stuff that makes turkeys big and fat, because he is a pet and I don't want to shorten his life by making him unhealthy with the stuff for meat turkeys.
He tried some oatmeal today. It was raw, but I put a little water in it, and he seemed to like it.
Aside from the few mites I've found on him, he seems very healthy, and I am about to treat the mites with ivermectin pour on that I use for my chickens.
So, anything else I can feed him to make him grow up big and strong, but not fat and unhealthy? He's not very adventuresome with trying new things, so anything I can do to help him eat it?
Also, he likes to stick his beak into his food bowl and rake it out onto the ground. Once it touches the ground, he absolutely refuses to eat it. Does he need a trough or something, so he can't rake it out?
We have all kinds of organic fruits, veggies, oatmeal, and whatnot to feed our budgies, so we've got a bunch of stuff we could give him, and I'm just wondering what would be best

Any help is appreciated!
Here's some pics of my baby, Griffin

His beautiful bald face :-D He is REALLY hard to get mad, and I've only seen him all puffed up once. I was amazed at how long his snood got

He is, of course, calm in this pic

When we first bought Griffin home, one of our dogs was fascinated by him. He kept staring at him, like he thought we'd brought home a HUGE chicken. This pic was taken before we could clean his cage. We got a brooder ready for the 'baby turkey' before we got him, and saw how big baby turkeys really are

So we had to set him up a bigger place, and he was in the vacant coop while we worked on it. He became fast friends with my lone rescue rooster :-D



Griffin loves the camera. He looks right at it, and sticks his huge beak right up into the lens. His huge beak was kinda scary at first, but he has never offered to bite anyone..

His back :-D I spent the first two days we had him working dirt/mud/poop clods out of his feathers, and scrubbing his feet and legs with a damp rag. Poor boy

Thanks for any help you can give, all advice is appreciated!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

First of all, that's a sweetgrass turkey, they are a heritage variety, which is different than a broad breasted. He will live a longer life, be able to breed and do a bit of flying, so feed him a good quality all flock, Mine like sunflower seeds, tomatoes, cucumber, watermelon, Apple's and other various produce.


Here's a pic of a royal palm Tom and two sweetgrass toms about 7 month old.


Here's one of my 10 week old sweetgrass tom

 

[MadamPoofyBrow]

I've never heard of a sweetgrass, but he looks just like the penciled palms I saw online.
I thought he looked like a hen, but I have seen him gobble four times, and from what I understand hens can't gobble, right? He sounded really good, not like a bad hen impersonation. And his snood extended over his nose when he got mad. He's just not usually mad. He'd better not be a hen, this is the one time I actually don't want a hen

I don't know how old he is. They had broad breasteds too, which they said were five months, and looked five months. They just said the 'royal palms' were 'younger' and there were three. Compared to his sister, he doesn't look like a tom. She had a MUCH smaller snood, just barely a little bump, and was a lot smaller than him. They didn't say how old the 'palms' were, but did say they were all the same age. So, I just know he's younger than five months. He was a lot smaller than the broad bresteds. I saw his parents, and his daddy was big, fat, but relaxed. He didn't look verry tom-y either

I'll try and get him mad again by playing the audio of a gobbling turkey, and get a pic of him then, so you can see how long his snood gets. His breeder promised he was a tom, and if he ends up being a hen I am going to be very sad

I don't care what colour he is, so long as he's a turkey and doesn't look too much like a wild turkey (We've got turkey hunters and wild turkeys surrounding us, lol) I'm fine IF he's a TOM! Can someone verify that? I've had several people say he looks like a hen. Does the gobble make it for sure?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

No, I changed my mind after looking more at it, it's a tom, I would guess it's between 3-4 months old. Sorry I had thought it was older, but it is a sweetgrass.

 

[MadamPoofyBrow]

Okay, phew! Everyone else has been saying hen, but it would really help if I knew his age. But, he's gobbling, so good! Nice to know his colour :-D Why in the world would they try to sell him as a royal palm!? Ah well, I didn't get him for breeding or pay a fortune for him. Whatever he is he is super sweet, and is gonna be a great pet :-D

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I really think he's between 3-4 months, I think they probably didn't know what they had and they thought it was a Palm, I personally love sweetgrass, it's one of my favorite varieties, you can look at different varieties on Porters Turkey's, that's where I got mine, this last batch I ordered hatching eggs.

 

[MadamPoofyBrow]

Thanks so much for all your info :-D Whatever he is I love him, he is so sweet!
I checked out sweet grass and they seem awesome!
Would it be good if I cooked him some oatmeal tomorrow?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I have never offered my Turkeys oatmeal, so if he likes it give him some, I have too many, I would need a lot of oatmeal, I have given it to my chickens in the past though.

My turkeys have a varied diet, so provide a ration of some sort and whatever else he likes. You will find out how different turkeys are from chickens and how curious and interactive they are, and you are going to feel sorry for all the thanksgiving turkeys like I do once you understand how silly and fun they are.

 

[MadamPoofyBrow]

I will be sure to give him lots of variation :-D
He has already shown so much personality, I'm amazed! I mean, chickens have personality, but Griffin is so full of personality! He's just awesome :-D
I'm sure by thanksgiving I'll have quite a different opinion on the dinner, lol!

 

[memphis]

He's a handsome young man! Sweetgrass are amazing birds. Go to Porters Turkey site...he has a ton of pictures. My turkeys love raisins, sunflower seeds, cucumbers, red tomatoes (won't touch the yellow ones), and meal worms. Those are their favorites. I had to do the same thing...put my one hen in a tub & scrubbed her down. She too had all kinds of dried yuck stuck in her feathers, up her nose, on her eyelids...uggg!
You'll love him. He'll be a great pet. Love my chickens. ..but my turkeys are special!